The 2020 US drama film “Nomadland” by Chloé Zhao that won the Oscar for Best Picture at this years Academy Awards is out now in cinemas. It is based on the book by the same name by Jessica Bruder and follows Fern (Frances McDormand [Three Billboards, 2017] a vandwelling working nomad, who left her hometown after her husband passed away to travel the United States.
Like her previous film “The Rider” (2017) this film also features a naturalistic style with real people portraying themselves like the vandweller Bob Wells. The cinematography is beautiful with lots of wide landscape shots of the vast American vista and large packaging halls of Amazon and it really evokes the feeling of being on the road with Fern and resting here and there or working for some time at a place before moving on.
In the interaction of Fern with other vandwellers or coworkers and family members the film discusses topics of homelessness, the aftermath of the financial crisis, dealing with great personal loss and trying to find peace in one’s life despite hardships.
In general the film makes a good impression with interesting topics and style but didn’t manage to engage me further or create a deep viewing experience with it’s structure a little too loose and an overuse of a mediocre musical score.
On a sidenote it is interesting that the Chinese-American directress was criticized on Social Media in China for some critical remarks that surfaced of her about the country from an interview in 2013 that led to a distribution stop of the film in China and a censorship of footage of the Academy Award Ceremony and Zhao receiving her award.
Chloé Zhao’s “The Rider” from 2017 is also worth a try. It features the same formula of naturalistic cinema with real people playing themselves and felt a little smaller but more focused overall.